A poetic ode to the demolition of the Richard Hugo House

In the poem "Maybe This Building Should Go" — and a series of redactions — Frances McCue considers the emotional pull of particular places and buildings. The poem is part of her collection "Timber Curtain."

Bill Radke talks with KUOW poetry correspondent Elizabeth Austen about McCue's new collection, including why the poet chose to redact or erase her own poems.

In the mid-1990s, McCue co-founded a literary arts center named after the late poet Richard Hugo. During her decade-long tenure as its director, McCue also lived in an apartment above one of the stages at Richard Hugo House, along with her husband and daughter.

When the old Victorian across from Capitol Hill's Cal Anderson Park was slated to be demolished and replaced with a shiny new building, McCue began writing about the rapid pace of change in the Seattle cityscape through the lens of her own layered relationship with Hugo House.